The long-term objective of this research is to study the mechanism of elicitation of motor activity from the cerebral cortex. At the present stage, electrophysiological experiments are conducted on cats to investigate the central control of orientation of the gaze: (1) the circuitry involved in the production of ocular deviations by stimulating the region of the thalamic internal medullary lamina is explored by microelectrode recording in acute and chronic experiments; (2) the relation between the thalamic intralaminar "oculomotor" region and the frontal and posterior eye fields is analyzed; (3) the possible role of the mechanisms for gaze orientation in the production of EEG rhythms in the frequency range of alpha- and spindle-like activity is investigated; and (4) discharges of units of the thalamic reticularis nucleus are recorded in an attempt to correlate this activity with that of other structures such as the centre median complex and the midbrain reticular formation.